Tanzania

Tanzania is one of the sources for this Irish Breakfast Tea Blend and the Breakfast Tea blend, here there are machines that roll the tea to turn it from a leaf shape to a twizzled smaller leaf that can then be dried. These machines were all made in Belfast in the 1950's by Sirocco works, a leading manufacturer of tea equipment. Engineered in Belfast. #BelfastBrew This trip consists of flying to London onto Dar es Salaam, another flight to Mbeya then a jeep journey for 6 hours. All together a 2 days trip to reach the 1st tea estate. I had a bit of time on my hands and so calculated that on average we we’re in transit for just over 10 hours a day for the whole trip and had an average speed on 107mph. You get used to being rattled about in the back of a jeep. The estates are so remote and so far from each other sometimes taking 6 hours to transfer from one to another. We visit 4 or 5 tea gardens on each trip.

This is Noel, Annie and I checking the crop. The lush green crop. Not far from his bungalow. He’s been the estate manager ever since we have been travelling here and is a wonderful host. On arrival we generally sit in front of the fire and catch up with a glass of wine or two. I think we look pretty good for 2 days travel. This day is straight into work, inspections and updates on crops. This part of Tanzania is bright and sunny, lush and green. It’s a busy week so we take 24 hrs to unwind in Zanzibar before returning to Dar for our return flight back. Why not!

Selection of photographs

Having sourced teas from Tanzania origin, East Africa for many years these trips have been well documented.

Tanzania is one of the sources for this Irish Breakfast Tea Blend and the Breakfast Tea blend, here there are machines that roll the tea to turn it from a leaf shape to a twizzled smaller leaf that can then be dried. These machines were all made in Belfast in the 1950's by Sirocco works, a leading manufacturer of tea equipment. Engineered in Belfast. #BelfastBrew This trip consists of flying to London onto Dar es Salaam, another flight to Mbeya then a jeep journey for 6 hours. All together a 2 days trip to reach the 1st tea estate. I had a bit of time on my hands and so calculated that on average we we’re in transit for just over 10 hours a day for the whole trip and had an average speed on 107mph. You get used to being rattled about in the back of a jeep. The estates are so remote and so far from each other sometimes taking 6 hours to transfer from one to another. We visit 4 or 5 tea gardens on each trip.

This is Noel, Annie and I checking the crop. The lush green crop. Not far from his bungalow. He’s been the estate manager ever since we have been travelling here and is a wonderful host. On arrival we generally sit in front of the fire and catch up with a glass of wine or two. I think we look pretty good for 2 days travel. This day is straight into work, inspections and updates on crops. This part of Tanzania is bright and sunny, lush and green. It’s a busy week so we take 24 hrs to unwind in Zanzibar before returning to Dar for our return flight back. Why not!

Selection of photographs